Using Evidence in Practice

Health services and systems look at how to ensure that the care being provided is consistent with evidence for best practice. [1] There is a growing recognition of gaps between what is known from research evidence and actual clinical practice and barriers to the use of evidence. [2] By reducing these gaps we can look at improving healthcare and health outcomes.

Moving evidence into use and reducing evidence-practice gaps is a complex task that requires input from many different groups including researchers, clinicians, consumers and policy makers. The National Institute of Clinical Studies is an institute of the National Health and Medical Research Council with a specific focus on how to improve healthcare by closing gaps between the best available evidence and real world practice.

For palliative care, as for other disciplines, reducing evidence-practice gaps presumes the existence of relevant evidence. This forms the base against which current practice is assessed and change programs are initiated if needed. Within palliative care, the literature is beginning to report about implementation and moving evidence into practice. [3-7]